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    A STRANGE CHANCE. 323

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    V _ Chapter I. On A Cloudless Morning 1 ...

    "He is a sweet-faced , interesting child ; -whoever belongs to him . may be proud of him . "

    "Aye , if he had but any one as belonged to him , " returned the woman ; " but he ' s an _unfortunate little creature , heaven bless him ,

    and has neither father nor mother to mind for him . His mother was a dirty , drinking woman , that went begging about here a good

    deal , maybe a year or so ago , and got many a ha ' penny and piece of bread for the sake of her little lad , nobody would have given

    her without him . I was coming one morning * along * the end of this very street we're now standing in , when I saw her on the other

    side of the way lugging him in her arms ; she was that drunk , though it was only morning , she was fairly staggering ; she stepped

    off the cans ' ey ledge to cross the road just as a coach turned the corner , and before the man could stop , though I screamed to him

    with all my might , she was knocked down , and the child thrown clean to where I was standing . 'Weil , sir , she was killed there

    and then ; and somehow I felt so grieved for this poor little thing , who was very badly hurt against the stonesI wouldn't let them

    , take him to the workhouse , or anything- of that sort , but carried him home to look after him a bit myself . That ' s about seven

    months ago ; you may see the scar here where his forehead was cut , " she continued , at the same time lifting some of the child ' s

    curls to show the mark . " You have been good ; very good , indeed" said George Gilbert ,

    , with a very sincere appreciation of the woman ' s kind action . He resumed his contemplation of the boy more thoughtfully than

    before , and still with the same softened expression in his eyes . " And you could never find out any one belonging * to him ? " ho

    asked . "No , sir ; nobody knew anything about his mother even ; she

    had only been begging about for four or five months , and an awful , wicked , swearing woman she wasto be sure . "

    , " And he has no friend but you ?" " Only me and my master . We ' ve done our best to keep him

    with us , but I ' m afraid , without times look up a little , we shall have to let him go into the ¦ workhouse after allfor things are

    , pretty hard with us just now . " During this conversation , George Gilbert had been forming a

    serious plan , and making up his mind to put it into immediate execution . There was a reminiscence connected with the most

    beautiful and sorrowful passage of his own previous life in the face and bright hair of the child , which raised in him a strong desire to

    keep it near him . Standing in the pleasant morning sunshine , with his hand upon the little one ' s glossy hairand his thoughts

    , trembling over the graves of past emotions , a spring of secret tenderness was unsealed within him , and in its flowing stream a

    subtle sweetness of pleasure was mingled with still more of the bitterness of pain . He felt ho had -mental strength ' to take the 8 2

    A Strange Chance. 323

    A STRANGE CHANCE . 323

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1861, page 323, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011861/page/35/